A construction site diary is the dated, day-by-day record of who was there, what was built, what went wrong and what it cost. Maintained well, it is the document a QS opens for the valuation. Maintained badly, it is why variations go unpaid.
Write it that shift
Date, weather, labour, plant, deliveries, work done with quantities, instructions, delays. Laid 25m of 150mm drainage, not drainage ongoing. Name the author and lock the entry.
It is a commercial document
Under NEC4 the question is always what the records say. A Friday write-up of Monday is a reconstruction. Contemporaneous means the same shift.
What the commercial team does with it
Keep one place the commercial team can search: the site diary written that day.
Rosie reads those entries against the contract so the notice is drafted from the record, not from memory on a Sunday. If you want that on one live job, book 15 minutes.
Key Takeaways
- Write it on the day. Weather, labour, plant, output, delays and instructions. If you write it on Friday for Monday, you are reconstructing.
- The diary is not a site-manager nicety. It is the record a QS uses for the interim valuation and the eight-week notice.
- Keep it in one place the commercial team can open. A site diary written that day is what Rosie reads against the contract before the clock runs out.
Related blogs you may like
Construction Records & Information Management System - Gather Insights
Construction records management is more than a site diary. Photos, allocations, instructions and notices have to sit together, or the QS reconstructs the week from WhatsApp.
Site Records Through the Project Lifecycle
Site records through the project life cycle. What a QS needs at mobilisation, peak and close-out, and why a reconstructed week will not stand up.
Daily Allocation Sheets: Construction's Most Underrated Document
The daily allocation sheet is underrated. Names, hours and the activity, written that shift. Reconstruct it on Friday and Defined Cost becomes a guess.
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